Meet the team….

VICARRevd Kevin Cecil 01600 713459 kevincecil@hotmail.co.uk Profile of Revd Kevin CecilI trained as an artist, until I had an encounter with what I can only describe as a glimpse of eternity, given by God; the effect of which blew me away. I have spent my life trying to explain this and to search for this wonder of God’s Grace in everyone I meet. Eventually I became ordained in 1982 and have been working with God’s people globally and locally ever since.

In an age of confusion I feel that life is becoming so fragmented that we are in danger of losing ourselves. I believe that there is a spiritual centre in us all (regardless of belief or religion); that God’s grace is sufficient to unite us and is a force that could become a positive energy for healing and reconciliation in the World in which we live.

I have post graduate qualifications in teaching, counselling and pastoral Theology. My only claim to fame is that I was once the most highly qualified dustman in the whole of Rhymney District Council!

ASSISTANT CURATERevd Penny Powdrill 01600 714096 pennypowdrill@btinternet.comProfile of Penny PowdrillI was brought up in rural Devon then London. After graduating with an Honours degree in Biology I was accepted as a volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and I worked for the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture on various training projects, primarily in Soil Science and Horticultural Botany. During my time in Tanzania I travelled widely and visited several Game Parks including the Serengeti. On return to the UK I trained as a teacher specialising in Further Education and took up a post at Burnley College leaving after three years to go to Birmingham University to undertake an M. Ed. course. During this time I also got married and then we moved to Monmouth. Since moving to Monmouth I have been in constant employment as a teacher/lecturer working both in teacher education at University of Wales College, Newport and latterly at the Royal Forest of Dean College where I continued to teach an array of science based subjects (A’ Level Biology, Human Biology, Environmental Science, maths for engineering to name but a few!) plus taking charge of their Teacher Education programme. I also work as an Education Consultant for Further Education for City and Guilds. I was licensed as a Reader in the Church of England in 2003 and have subsequently been ordained as a priest and presently act as Curate to a number of local parishes. Revd Jill Stephens 01600 890975 jill.stephens1@btinternet.comProfile of Jill StephensI was brought up in North Herefordshire and did my nursing training at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. After finishing my training I went to the British Hospital in Paris for two years. I was going to America, but I re-met my husband in 1972 (we had travelled to school and college on the same bus). After we married I continued to work as a theatre sister until we returned to Hereford. I then worked at the Hereford Eye Hospital and in A&E, until I retired in 2006. I was licensed as a reader in 1998, ordained as a permanent deacon in 2006 and ordained priest in 2013. My special ministries within the Wye Reaches Churches are as Chaplin to our Nursing/Residential Homes and looking after Baptisms.